Elon Musk’s X is the least trusted tech company in America

While companies like Amazon and Google topped the list, Musk’s platform came in last.

The survey data showed that 70% of respondents trust Amazon, 65% trust Google and 64% trust Netflix. Only 29% trusted TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. US officials are concerned that ByteDance is sharing data with the Chinese government and have asked it to hand over TikTok to an American-owned company or face a nationwide ban.

Even fewer — just 28 percent of respondents — trusted X, the same percentage that trusted the US government. The survey found that 43% of respondents did not trust the US government, while 44% did not trust X.

While the survey didn’t make clear why respondents ranked last on the list, the platform has been a magnet for controversy since Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion, rebranded it and overhauled how it moderates content .

Musk’s approach to content moderation

Musk made mass layoffs after taking control of Twitter, particularly among his trust and safety team, which has shrunk from about 230 employees to about 20. Several trust and safety employees were laid off in the following year.

Yoel Roth, once head of the trust and safety team, resigned from the company shortly after Musk arrived.

Concerns about misinformation on the social media app grew rapidly after Musk’s purchase, so he launched Community Notes in 2022. A 2023 Bloomberg report said it analyzed nearly 400 X posts that contained false information about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza and found that it usually took more than seven hours for a community note to appear, with some taking 70 hours.

Musk himself has faced backlash for his own questionable posts, including in 2023 when business leaders criticized him for amplifying an anti-Semitic post about X. He backtracked in January during a conference hosted by the European Jewish Association, saying he was “naïve” about anti-Semitism and is “Jewish by association”.

Musk is now dealing with the fallout from another X post this month after former President Donald Trump survived a second apparent assassination attempt. Musk questioned in the post why President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris haven’t also faced similar threats.

Musk’s post immediately drew backlash for promoting political violence, prompting him to delete it and defend himself, calling it a “joke.” The US Secret Service told Bloomberg News that it is “aware” of Musk’s post and is investigating the matter.

Musk’s X has also run afoul of several foreign governments, most recently in Brazil, where X lawyers finally capitulated on Friday to demands for stricter content moderation on Monday after the country’s Supreme Court ordered the platform banned from national level.

X representatives did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.